Electromagnetically driven liquid iris.

This paper describes a tunable liquid iris driven by electromagnetic actuation for miniature cameras. To examine the magnetic effect on a ferrofluid, the contact angle modification of a sessile ferrofluid droplet is tested using a neodymium magnet and an electric coil which 2.5 A current is applied to. The contact angle variations of the ferrofluid droplet for each test are 21.3 and 18.1 degrees, respectively. As a proof of concept, a pretest of a tunable iris actuated by electromagnetic effect is performed by using a hollow cylinder cell. As applying the current, the aperture diameter is adjusted from 4.06 mm at 0A to 3.21 mm at 2.0A. Finally, a tunable liquid iris (9 x 9 x 2 mm$^{\mathrm{3}})$, consisting of two connected circular microchannels, is realized using MEMS technology. the aperture diameter of the tunable liquid iris is able to be modified from 1.72 mm at 0 A to 1.15 mm at 2.6 A. This tunable optical iris has potential applications not only for portable electronic devices but also in biomedical fields such as optical coherence tomography and microsurgery.